It happened on December 8th

Wiki-grandpa researched to find who was born on the same day as his grandson, and found these famous names:

• Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland (1542)
• Cristina, queen of Sweden (1626)
• Jean Sibelius (1865) - composer
• Diego Rivera (1886) - Mexican painter
  
• E. C. Segar (1894) - cartoonist, creator of Popeye
  
• Lee J. Cobb (1911) - actor
• Richard Fleischer (1916) - director (Tora Tora Tora, 20.000 Leagus Under the Sea)
• Cláudio Villas Boas (1916) - Brazilian indianist
• Oswaldo Sargentelli (1924) - journalist, samba person, promoter of mulatas
  
• Sammy Davis, Jr (1925) - singer and actor
• Maximilian Schell (1930) - actor
• Alaíde Costa (1935) - singer
  
• David Carradine (1936) - actor (Kill Bill, Kung Fu)
• James MacArthur (1937) - actor (Hawaii 5-0)
  
• Jim Morrison (1943) - rock singer (The Doors)
• Kim Basinger (1953) - actress
• Teri Hatcher (1964) - actress (Desperate Housewives)
• Sinead O'Connor (1966) - singer
• Dominic Monaghan (1976) - actor (Lost, Lord of the Rings)
  

Also on this day:

• The United States declared war on Japan in 1941, one day after the attack at Pearl Harbor
• Died: Golda Meir (1978), John Lennon (1980) and Tom Jobim (1994).
• Avenida Paulista, one of the most famous avenues in São Paulo, was opened, em 1891.

In Brazil, it's Family Day.
Date of official creation of Soccer, in 1863.
On december 8th, the Catholic church celebrates the Immaculate Conception; for the buddhists, it's the date of the enlightenment of the Buddah.

Now, the story for the grandson: grandpa had a quick close encounter with one of the famous people born on December 8th. It was on the time when the company still paid for Business Class travel. Grandma and I were sitting on the first row: right in front and to the left, the restroom door, and right after it, the curtain separating us from First Class. In the early morning, suddenly the curtain opens and a small jumping figure gets in the restroom. I can't beleive what I see; I look at grandpa and my face says "is it really him?", and she looks at me with the same face. We wait, and soon the character gets out of the restroom and disappears behind the curtain: it's really him, Sammy Davis, Jr!
At that time there was a mandatory stop in Rio. When we got off the plane, at the end of the corridor, there he was , surrounded by two bodyguards, leaning agains the wall. Too bad the digital camera hadn't been invented yet... But I had pen and paper, and thanks to these two inventions I can show proof of this story, kept to this day in grandpa's trunk. I searched the Web for an autograph to compare, and found the picture on the right, with an almost identical one...


(I can't tell for sure the year when this happened. I think it was 1982, but I couldn't confirm it on the Web...)